1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the invention relate to methods of offering caching services to servers in a network. Other aspects of the invention relate to a caching device and a caching aggregator for offering caching services to a server through a network. Yet further aspects of the invention relate to a server in a network for receiving and either accepting or rejecting offers of caching services from caching devices in the network.
2. Description of Related Art
Caching appliances are typically purchased by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide better Internet performance for their customers. Inktomi and Akamai provide such caching appliances. The caching appliances can be used to reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed by an ISP by serving some requests from a local cache. A caching appliance can also improve internet access performance for end users when the end users access web sites.
Currently ISPs that own caching appliances do not receive any revenue for placing web content on the caching appliances. As content is requested by end users it is copied into a cache as it is delivered. The ISP has no control over what is placed into the cache. There is no compensation to the cache owner by the content provider when content is placed in the cache. There is a need for new caching appliances and methods to make possible the generation of revenue by the owners of such appliances.